


IMPORTANT 


THIS CONTAINS 

1 Letter from Director 

1 Foremanship Problem 

No. 6 

1 Return Envelope 



Book_4- y\. t Jv 

Copyright N?._ 

CDEflPJGCT DEPOSIT. 


(They taught me all I knew) 
Their names are What, and Why, 
and When, 

And How, and Where, and Who." 













Dep’t of Modern Foremanship Chicago, III. 


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LaSalle Extension University 


4046-4058 SOUTH MICHIGAN AVENUE - CHICAGO 


Department of 
Modern Foremanship 


To the Students of 
Modern Foremanship: 

One way not to make mistakes is not to do anything; but t hat will not get the 
work out. Another way is to do something, but to know exactly what the 
results of your action will be before you do it. 

Practical men usually prefer to increase the number of things which they 
do, and make a few mistakes if necessary, instead of waiting every time to 
know exactly what the results will be. This is learning from your own ex¬ 
perience—taking a chance, hoping to be right more often than you are wrong 
—and no doubt it pays many times. 

But is there any excuse for making the same mistake twice, or for making a 
mistake which someone else has already made? Probably not a good one, 
anyhow. 

And that is what planning is: organizing, preparing, getting ready to be as 
sure as possible ; profiting by mistakes which thousands and generations of 
other producers have made before ; attempting not to make the same mistake 
twice; cashing in on the experience of others. 

This sixth manual is full of the experience others have had in planning, 
scheduling, routing, dispatching, and other methods of controlling the 
flow of work. It shows a way which can be followed to get results without 
having to make unnecessary mistakes. The problem inclosed in the pocket 
is a job of dispatching for you to do. 

Our consulting service should be of especial value in this part of the 
course. Write us about your production difficulties, and take advantage 
of our willingness to be of every possible assistance. 

Going thru this manual is a production job in itself. It is up to someone 
to do the dispatching, and it looks as tho you were the man best fitted to 
do the work. The results are sure to be worth while. 


Sincerely 



HD*VW 









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LaSalle Extension University 

DEPARTMENT OF MODERN FOREMANSHIP 
HUGO DIEMER, Director 

CHICAGO 


Matriculation No._ Date_192. 

Name_ 

Address (complete) _ 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP PROBLEM NO. 6 

Seeing that the work gets out—that is the first and foremost job of 
foremen to-day, as you well know. And to get work out, someone must 
do the dispatching; someone must say who does what, and where it is 
to be done and when. That is what we shall do in this problem—dis¬ 
patch work. 

When an automobile is all assembled, full of gasoline, and ready to 
go, someone must start it even if it has a self-starter; and dis¬ 
patching is starting the machinery of production—but it is more than 
starting—the dispatcher takes the wheel and guides the work until 
it has reached its destination. 

Some of the details of dispatching may be worked out by the planning 
department ; yet dispatching is more than planning, it is actually 
seeing that the plans are carried thru. It may at times be accom¬ 
plished by either verbal or written orders ; but here in this problem 
about dispatching we shall make a written record of the preparation 
steps, and we shall limit ourselves to getting one job started. 

Choose one specific job in your shop in which you are interested and 
with which you are personally well acquainted. Take this one job and 
consider it—not the numerous jobs performed in the whole shop—in 
forming the solution of the three problems on the following pages. 

Here we will consider o ne j ob as t he wor k done by o ne man on one 
specific par t or piece of material . This job may consist of one or 
more operations performed simultaneously or in rotation on the one 
part or piece of material such as: drilling and reaming part No. A- 
148; planing a certain wooden part; sewing buttons on a vest ; cutting 
soles for shoes; loom tending; wheeling ashes; that part of an as¬ 
sembly done by one man; or tracing a drawing. 

Tools and materials for this job must be prepared and assembled for 
work before this specific job or order chosen can be posted on a dis¬ 
patch board and assigned to a given man. 
















Effective dispatching requires preparation. Hence indicate here: 

First—Preparation as to the tools required for the performance of 
this one specific job you have chosen. Write an order showing: 

What tools are required on this job 
To whom the order is sent 
Where the tools are sent 
When the tools are sent 

Why they are sent (the job number or name) 

Who issues this order, and when 



I 



Indicate here: 


Second—Preparation as to materia l for this same job. Write out a 
material order showing: 

To whom the order goes 

What material is required , 

How much material is required 
When it is required 
Where it is required 

Why it is required (the job number and name) 

Who makes out the order, and when it is issued 



Third—To dispatch the worker to this same job. Write out an order 
for the worker showing: 

Who is to do the work 

Where he is to work 

What he is to do (first operations) 

When he is to do it (time of each operation) 

Why it is to be done (job number or name) 

How it is to be done (it is not necessary to give 
detailed instructions here) 

Who makes out the order, and when it is issued 



« 








J 


THE FLOW OF WORK 


THE SIXTH WORK MANUAL 

MODERN FOREMANSHIP 

AND 

PRODUCTION METHODS 


Being the Expression of Practical Foremen 


Assembled, Organized, and Bdited by 

HUGO DIEMER, MEYER BLOOMFIELD, DANIEL BLOOMFIELD, 
AND E. F. DAHM 

In Cooperation with Others 



LA SALLE EXTENSION UNIVERSITY 

>1 

CHICAGO 


OA-6 


V-S 

» 


Copyright, 1921 
All Rights Reserved 

LASALLE EXTENSION UNIVERSITY 



JUL 22 IS2! 

©CI.A622248 

**0 I 



The average worker gets along without knowing 
where his work conies from or where it goes to, but 
the workers above the average—the foremen of to-day 
—know they must know these things. 

Both men and management depend upon them to have 
a bigger, broader view of the flow of work. 

Process mapping, scheduling, planning, dispatching, 
and other methods of controlling the flow of work, are 
taken up in this sixth work manual. It presents a 
broad view of the process of which any single job is 
a part. 

There are rough spots in the flow of work—break¬ 
downs, jams, and difficulties to overcome, but these are 
opportunities, chances to prove the value of your train¬ 
ing and experience. It pays to be prepared for them. 

The foreman worth while is the one who delivers when 
everything goes dead wrong. 


THE MODERN FOREMANSHIP 
COUNCIL 


There are production managers, practicing foremen, 
executive officers, labor managers, and educators on 
this Foremanship Council. 

Tho from different walks of life, they have one strong 
tie binding them together—that is, their experience 
with and interest in the work of Modem Foremen. 

The Council reviews the course and lessons and serves 
in an advisory capacity. It brings to bear on the plan¬ 
ning, organization, presentation, and service of the 
Modern Foremanship and Production Methods Course 
the judgment of experts from all important points of 
view. In many minds there is increased wisdom and 
safety of judgment. 


2 


THE MODERN FOREMANSHIP COUNCIL 


Leroy Tabor, Tabor Manufacturing Company, Philadelphia, 
Pa. 

George R. Townsend, Manager, International Steel and Ord¬ 
nance Company, Lowell, Mass. 

Richard A. Feiss, Vice President, Joseph & Feiss Company, 
Manager, Clothcraft Shops, Cleveland, Ohio 

J. L. Ackerson, Vice President, Merchant Shipbuilding Cor¬ 
poration, Philadelphia, Pa. 

J. M. Carmody, Production Manager, H. B. Black Company, 
Cleveland, Ohio 

F. C. Shafer, Factory Manager, Penberthy Injector Company, 
Detroit, Mich. 

Matthew Porosky, Chairman, Factory Management Commit¬ 
tee, Holtzer Cabot Company, Boston, Mass. 

S. Babcock, General Foreman Power Plant, Westinghouse 
Electric and Manufacturing Company, East Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Boris Emmet, Labor Manager, Henry Sonneborn & Com¬ 
pany, Inc., Baltimore, Md. 

Allen B. Crow, Secretary, Society of Industrial Engineers, 
Detroit, Mich. 

B. E. Mallary, Foremanship Training, Board of Education, 
Cleveland, Ohio 

William Bethke, Educational Director, LaSalle Extension 
University <■ 

E. F. Dahm, Assistant Educational Director, LaSalle Exten¬ 
sion University 

Meyer Bloomfield, Editor-in-Chief, Modern Foremanship 
and Production Methods Course; of Bloomfield & Bloom¬ 
field, Boston 

Daniel Bloomfield, Associate Editor, Modem Foremanship 
and Production Methods Course; of Bloomfield & Bloom¬ 
field, Boston 

Hugo Diemer, Director, Modem Foremanship and Produc¬ 
tion Methods Course 


3 


THE FIFTEEN WORK MANUALS 

of the Course in 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 
and 

PRODUCTION METHODS 


I. The Foreman and His Job 

II. The Working Force 

III. Leadership 

IV. The Foreman and Training 

V. The Foreman and Job Analysis 

VI. The Flow of Work 

VII. A Good Place to Work 

VIII. Getting the Work Out 

IX. The Foreman as Stockkeeper 

X. Cost Control in the Shop 

XI. Industrial Organization 

XII. What Is Production and Why? 

XIII. Wages and Incentives 

XIV. The Foreman and the Law 

XV. The Foreman and Industrial Service 


4 



CONTENTS OF THIS MANUAL 


on 

THE FLOW OF WORK 

The Steps in the Flow of Work 

What Process Mapping Is 

The Advantages 

The Basic Principles 

The Application within the Shop 

Organizing for Work 
How to Schedule 

The Preliminary Program 
Detailed Scheduling 

Dispatching 

Difference between Scheduling and Dispatching 
The Importance of the Foreman 
Control Boards as an Aid 

Dealing with Interruptions 

Interruptions to Schedules 
The Essentials of Inspection 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


Suppose you were a foreman in the plant of 
the Amalgamated Steel and Ordnance Com¬ 
pany, which, after the armistice was signed, 
switched its entire manufacturing program 
from making steel shells for the army and 
navy, to making washing machines for house¬ 
hold purposes. 

How would you go about it to turn out the 
washing machines? Or rather, how do you 
imagine the management of this company 
went about it? They did exactly what the 
management of your factory had to do when 
it started in business, or what it would have 
to do over again if it made as radical a 
change in its product as the Amalgamated 
Steel and Ordnance Company did in theirs. 

You will find as you continue thru this man¬ 
ual, that before the Amalgamated Steel and 
Ordnance Company could start the produc¬ 
tion of washing machines and be assured that 
the work would flow thru the factory with 
any degree of regularity, it was necessary 
to take seven important steps, every one of 
which affected their foremen in one way or 
another. Of course some of these steps were 


8 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


taken without the active assistance of any 
of the foremen, but they nevertheless were 
counted on right from the start to perform 
certain duties. 

In order to know what these duties are and 
what type of work they include, it will be 
helpful to know in detail why they were 
assigned to foremen and why and how the 
conclusions were arrived at under each step. 

The Seven Steps in the Flow of Work 

The steps bear such an important relation to 
the flow of work, for which every foreman 
must shoulder his share of the responsibility, 
that the entire discussion in this manual will 
be centered around them in the following 
order: 

m » 

1. Deciding on a general plan of work. 

2. Fitting the general plan to the factory and 
product. 

3. Planning the departments and the force 
to handle the work. 

4. Establishing a detailed manufacturing 
program. 

5. Scheduling the work. 

6. Dispatching the work. 

7. Safeguarding against interruptions. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


9 


Step One 

The General Plan of Work 

The foreman who first sizes up the flow of 
work in its relation to the entire plant or 
factory, and then endeavors to meet the prob¬ 
lems in his own department accordingly, soon 
discovers that there has been a general plan 
of work mapped out which neither he nor the 
higher executives with whom he has been 
working, have created as a whole, and which 
underwent few, if any, changes before it was 
decided upon. 

For practically everything that is made, 
somebody has worked out a plan for manu¬ 
facturing it. A housewife does not bother 
about working out a general plan for baking 
bread; nor does a farmer’s wife work one 
out for churning butter. If they did not 
inherit such general plans from their 
mothers, a receipt book or a few suggestions 
from a neighbor, would supply them. The 
same principle is true of any concern which 
starts the manufacture of steel according to 
the Bessemer process. Bessemer laid out the 
original general plan of work, and other com¬ 
panies perfected it. All a concern needs to 
do is to adopt this plan at the point where 
the others left off. 



10 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Where the General Plan Originates 

So in any plant or factory which has been in 
operation for any length of time, there is 
first of all a general plan as to how the work 
shall be done. The plan may have been inher¬ 
ited from the past, or it may have been 
devised by an inventor or an engineer, or by 
the planning department. In the case of a 
new factory or plant, it is adopted wholly or 
in part out of the experience of one or sev¬ 
eral concerns in the same line of business. 

Finding out what is the general plan of work 
in your factory—ascertaining what are the 
methods recognized as best for accomplishing 
what your organization has set out to accom¬ 
plish, and studying the history of the indus¬ 
try in which you belong—that is the first 
step toward a well-grounded understanding 
of the main program of your factory. 

You will of course realize that this first step 
is being emphasized in order to enable you 
to get your work out efficiently in connection 
with the plant as a whole. The better you 
can understand the general plan of work in 
your factory, the better you will be able to 
accomplish this. The planning department— 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


11 


and where there is no planning department, 
the superintendent’s office—is a mine of in¬ 
formation for you. By cooperating with 
them whenever it is possible, you will soon 
train yourself to think in terms of the main 
factory program and supervise your own 
department accordingly. Once the general 
plan of work is firmly set in your mind, many 
points which heretofore may have seemed 
questionable will become clear. 



12 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Step Two 

Fitting the General Plan to Your Factory and 

Product 

But this general plan of work, as it was 
inherited from the past or worked out by 
others, may be too general to fit the present 
needs of your factory and product. A rad¬ 
ical change from one type of product to 
another may have taken place, or the factory 
space and equipment may have been in¬ 
creased or decreased since the general plan 
was adopted. While in a general way this 
plan answers the new purposes of these 
changes, it nevertheless does not meet the 
detailed requirements of the present equip¬ 
ment and product. 

Work will never flow thru a factory as it 
should, on mere general plans. The details 
of fitting the general plan of work to meet 
the present requirements of both equipment 
and factory, must be painstakingly worked 
out. It is at this point that planning begins 
to take definite form. Future planning is 
dependent upon the thoroness with which 
details are worked out and applied. Unless 
care is exercised in working out these details, 
future plans will collapse. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


13 


So the first important move in starting a new 
factory or in adjusting an old one to an en¬ 
tirely different product, would be to find out 
the general way in which the product can 
best be made. 


The Ideal Plant 

It is not difficult to believe that the most 
efficient factory is the one where there are 
no delays, no interruptions, no excess of one 
part, and no deficiency of another. In such 
a plant, which we may call the ideal one,— 

1. Every man is busy producing every min¬ 
ute of his time. 

2. Every machine is busy producing every 
minute of its time. 

3. There is always just the right amount of 
each part or of each kind of material, pro¬ 
duced at all times to form just the right 
amount of the finished product. 

Under ordinary conditions few factories, if 
any, can reach this ideal; but all can ap¬ 
proach it more and more closely by carefully 
attending to the details of changing the gen- 



14 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


eral plan to meet the needs of the factory 
and the product, so that the flow of work is 
as smooth and as continuous as conditions 
will permit. Each foreman who approaches 
the ideal condition in his department does so 
by paying careful attention to every detail 
which will make the flow of work thru his 
department more smooth and more contin¬ 
uous. 


Process Mapping Is One of the First Moves 


Planning just how the work shall flow thru 
the plant as well as thru the individual de¬ 
partments, is called “process mapping.” 

It is one of the first moves in fitting the gen¬ 
eral plan of work to the factory and product. 
Conditions are seldom the same in any two 
factories, but this explanation of how one 
concern mapped its processes so that its gen¬ 
eral plan of work would meet the require¬ 
ments of its new factory, will illustrate one 
way of doing it. 

How One Company Fitted Its General Plan to a 

New Factory 

A certain company was greatly overtaxed for 
production during the War. To clothe the 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


15 


armies of the Allies as well as our own army, 
required sewing machines in vast quantities. 
To meet this demand, this concern found it 
necessary to erect a new factory beside its 
former one. 

The problem was to lay out the departments 
and machines in accordance with the general 
plan of work. The old and new buildings were 
to have connecting passageways on each floor. 
The first task was to determine what depart¬ 
ments to take out of the old building and put 
into the new one, where to locate these depart¬ 
ments in the new building, and how to relocate 
the departments of the old building to the best 
advantage. 

On first thought that would seem to be a very 
simple matter. Just bring the raw materials 
in on the ground floor, ship them up to the top 
floor, and then arrange the departments in 
both buildings so that the material would flow 
down by gravity. That plan would have been 
all right had it not been that this company 
manufactured 1,800 different models, consisting 
of more than 30,000 different parts, and requir¬ 
ing 180,000 different operations. 

If the plant were to be laid out to give 
straight-line routing for one group of parts, 
that would mean complicated routing for the 
other parts. At the best, it had to be a com¬ 
promise, as the routing of any one part had to 
be sacrificed for the best good of the whole 
product. 



16 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


It was impracticable to attempt to study the 
routing for all the different parts, so twenty- 
four important parts were selected. Then by 
the aid of the routing charts and an isometric 
layout it was possible to study the routing of 
these twenty-four parts under various locations 
of departments. A reproduction of such a 
chart is shown on the folded insert directly 
opposite. 


First, by cut-and-try methods, the departments 
were so listed on a routing diagram as to re¬ 
quire the least number of elevator trips for the 
major parts. It is obvious that any one part 
could have been manufactured entirely on one 
floor by merely grouping the departments or 
machines thru which that part passed. How¬ 
ever, had this been done, it would have seri¬ 
ously affected the routing of the other parts, 
which were equally important. 


Any arrangement of departments tentatively 
worked out from the routing diagrams, was 
transferred to the isometric drawings, in order 
to give a comprehensive bird’s-eye view of the 
entire layout. Each department was located on 
this isometric chart, and then moved around 
until a permanent location was definitely deter¬ 
mined upon which would not conflict with the 
location of other departments. So thoroly was 
the work of process mapping done that after 
production was started it was necessary to 
make only a few slight changes. 





VISUALIZING YOUR PROCESS MAPPING PROBLEMS 


Fig. 1.—The above blue print drawing is a reproduction, 
considerably reduced, of the isometric layout which the sew¬ 
ing machine manufacturer referred to in this manual, used 
to excellent advantage in process mapping his plant. The 
original drawing, which included six floors, made it possible 
for those responsible for the flow of work to visualize the 
routing of parts and shift the various departments from one 
location to another in order to determine which location 
would best answer their purposes. Such a chart has at least 
one big advantage over any plan which utilizes individual 
floor plans, namely, that each floor is shown in its exact 


relation to all the other floors. It would be practically im¬ 
possible to show this relation by using separate floor plans. 
This isometric chart, which is of course drawn accurately 
and to scale, when made on a sufficiently large scale, makes 
it possible to trace the course of a product from the time 
the raw material is received at the receiving platform to the 
storeroom and then thru the various processes and depart¬ 
ments back to the storeroom or shipping department. We 
are indebted to Mr. Hasbrouck Haynes, President of the 
Hasbrouck Haynes Corporation, and to “Factory,” the maga¬ 
zine of management, for permission to reproduce this drawing. 








































































THE FLOW OF WORK 


17 


A “Model” Way of Mapping Processes 

Some companies, instead of using an iso¬ 
metric layout, prepare small wooden models 
of their buildings, and have removable floor 
board on which are mounted blue prints or 
photostats showing the equipment on each 
floor. Instead of colored crayon lines, they 
take colored threads to show the flow of work. 
Occasional arrowheads are used to indicate 
the direction of the flow. This procedure will 
soon show where there is a tendency towards 
congestion or where the flow tends to reverse. 
Such a model is reproduced in Fig. 2. 

Like job analysis, process mapping must be 
thoro in order to accomplish all the possibili¬ 
ties it is capable of. When careful thought 
is put behind it, such as was exercised by the 
company just described, process mapping is 
capable of performing what, without it, 
might be termed production wonders. Mass 
production would be impossible if process map¬ 
ping were unknown. 

There is inspiration in the ceaseless flow and 
avoidance of congestion. It isn’t every indus¬ 
try, of course, that can employ the appeal 
of rapidly moving mass production, such as 




Fig 2.—Some concerns find a route model such as the one above which is of wood construction, a very effec¬ 
tive assistant in process mapping their plants. Floor plans laid on the floors of this model show the posts and 
windows, and holes are cut for elevators and stairways. The course of products thru the plant can be graph¬ 
ically shown by means of different colored threads for each finished part or component. 


































































THE FLOW OF WORK 


19 


is practiced in the Ford plant, for example; 
but there is a satisfaction and an enthusiasm 
inspired by a steady flow in the right direc¬ 
tion. 


Four Rules for Process Mapping 

If the foreman understands the general flow 
of work thruout the factory, from receiving 
platform to shipping room, he will more eas¬ 
ily understand the principles which expe¬ 
rience has proved are helpful in process 
mapping. In fitting the general plan of work 
to the needs of the factory and product, prob¬ 
ably the most important factor to consider is 
the movement of the materials as they go 
from one process to the next. Other factors 
must also be taken into consideration, but the 
question of getting the materials to move 
right is likely to be the most important of all. 
And here are four general rules for the 
movement of materials, which it will be well 
to bear in mind. 

Rule 1 .—Materials should generally move 
thru the plant in a certain path, which starts 
at the point where the raw materials are re¬ 
ceived and ends at the point where the fin¬ 
ished product is shipped. It is not always 
possible to follow this rule exactly. 



20 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Rule 2 .—The distance to be traveled by ma¬ 
terials going along this path from process to 
process should be as short as possible. 

Rule 3 .—In making its trip along this path, 
material should move as quickly and as eco¬ 
nomically as possible. 

Rule J >.—Choke points which tend to slow up 
or stop the work, should be eliminated. 

These rules hold good in most cases; but 
where you have a special case, you may find 
it necessary to disregard some of them in 
order to get results and still meet the require¬ 
ments of the special case. 

For example, there are cases where a fore¬ 
man, having finished a piece of work in his 
department, finds it advisable not to send it 
on at once to the next department but to 
keep it until he has accumulated a number 
of such finished pieces, at which time he 
sends the whole lot on. This not only may 
slow up the flow of work, but it often makes 
it necessary for the foreman to keep a store 
of goods in his department and to act as 
storekeeper. Since we go into this subject 
more thoroly in the ninth manual, “The Fore- 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


21 


man as Stockkeeper,” we shall do nothing 
more than mention it here. 

Who Does Process Mapping for a Plant? 

If a plant does not have within its own or¬ 
ganization a person or group of persons able 
to do the process mapping and arrange its 
departments and equipment so that the flow 
of work thru the whole plant will be most 
efficient, an outside man is usually employed 
— either a professional industrial engineer 
or someone experienced in making plant lay¬ 
outs. But if the plant is organized to do this 
work itself, then either the engineering de¬ 
partment or the planning department gener¬ 
ally does the process mapping. 


Process Mapping and the Foreman 


The planning department was created to aid 
the foreman by coordinating the work of the 
various departments. Process mapping is 
one of the necessary and very important 
early steps in such coordination. 

It follows that the work of process mapping 
does not stop at the door of each foreman’s 
department, but goes right in and thru it. In 



22 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


other words, to do its work right, the plan¬ 
ning department lays out the path in which 
work shall flow inside each department from 
machine to machine, and from there into the 
next department. This department must 
rely on the foreman not only to see that its 
plans are carried out, but also to make sug¬ 
gestions whenever he feels that improvements 
can be made which will better stabilize the 
flow of work. 

While the planning department lays out the 
general and often the detailed routing and 
processes by which work flows thru a depart¬ 
ment, the foreman is the person who keeps 
careful watch for new methods which will 
make the flow more rapid and more smooth. 
It requires his constant and intelligent super¬ 
vision to insure the best results even from the 
best mapped processes, and there are always 
little places within the department where the 
foreman can suggest improvements or mark 
them out himself. 

After process mapping has adjusted the gen¬ 
eral plan to meet the special requirements of 
the factory and product, it becomes necessary 
to figure out how this revised general plan 
shall be put into operation. Questions such 
as the following must be answered: 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


23 


Is a special planning department necessary? 

Shall there be an employment department, or 
shall the superintendent or foremen hire the 
help? 

How many departments shall there be, and 
what type of foreman is best for each de¬ 
partment? 

It is right here that we start the third step 
in working out the main factory program. 


\ 



24 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Step Three 

Organizing the Departments and Working Force to 

Handle the Work 

The problems which are to be met while we 
are considering this step, generally fall under 
the headings of production planning and pro¬ 
duction control. They are present in every 
plant or factory. They must be worked out 
on practically the same lines whether the 
factory consists of two hundred employes or 
ten thousand. 

In the shop of two hundred employes, it is 
likely that one man, generally the superin¬ 
tendent, with the assistance of his foremen, 
will have to give consideration to and pass 
decisions on a wide variety of problems. In 
the shop of ten thousand, the work will nat¬ 
urally have to be subdivided so that different 
individuals will make decisions on certain 
classes or groups. 

# 

The extent to which foremen are active par¬ 
ticipants in meeting production planning and 
producton control problems, depends some¬ 
what upon the nature of the organization and 
the policy of its management. However, 
whether you do or do not take an active part 
in meeting these problems, you will find that 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


25 


it pays to be conversant not only with the 
final decisions, but also with the methods by 
which they are arrived at. 



Fig. 3.—In a shop or factory employing about two hundred employes an 
organization chart such as the one above would most likely meet all the 
requirements. In such an organization, the foreman usually acts as first 
assistant to the superintendent in meeting problems which have to do with 
keeping up the flow of work. 

A workable understanding of all the manage¬ 
ment helps and plans which deal with plan¬ 
ning and controlling production and which 
you are called upon to apply in your depart¬ 
ment, is also very valuable. In a small shop 
these management helps and plans may be 
fewer and perhaps more simple, than in a 
large plant; but the general production and 
control problems will be identically the same. 

One Type of Organization 

Figure 3 shows a simple production chart as 
applied to a shop of about two hundred em- 













26 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


ployes making taps and dies and similar 
articles. In this shop the production organ¬ 
ization consists of: 

1. The superintendent. 

2. The production clerk, who is also chief 
clerk. 

3. The rough stores clerk, who also acts as 
receiver of incoming materials. 

4. The inspector. 

5. The finished-stores clerk, who also acts as 
shipper. 

In this organization, the man who acts as 
combined production clerk and storekeeper 
must do all the systematized work connected 
with what in the bigger organization is 
known as planning, preparation, scheduling, 
and production records. Many a man who is 
successfully carrying out production work in 
a company employing two thousand people, 
had his training in a smaller shop of this 
same type. It is easier to see the whole pro¬ 
duction problem as illustrated in this smaller 
shop and transfer the plan to the big estab¬ 
lishment, than it is to apply the principles 
controlling the system of the shop of two 
thousand employes to the smaller shop. 
Hence it will be profitable for the foreman to 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


27 


bear in mind that the smaller production 
organization here illustrated contains all the 
basic elements of the more detailed organiza¬ 
tion of the bigger shops. 



Pig. 4.—Here you have in graphic form the various steps and the line of 
progression by which a production order is put into operation and the 
flow of work kept up until the product is ready for the shipping room. 
Neither this chart nor the one in Fig. 3 is to be regarded as a model for 

your concern to follow. 

Fig. 4 shows how the production system op¬ 
erates in this small organization. 

The Larger Organization 

The works manager in the larger organiza¬ 
tion generally has two chief assistants. One 





















28 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


controls all the planning and preparation 
activities, and is called the “planning super¬ 
intendent.” The other gets out the work in 
accordance with the plans, specifications, 
preparations, and schedules, and is known as 
the “manufacturing superintendent.” The 
chart (Fig. 5) shows the flow of plans and 
preparations and schedules thru the offices of 
the different department heads who must 
look after these matters. 

The citing of these examples does not mean 
that they are models which your firm should 
copy. They are simply types taken from 
actual practice. Your firm may call the 
departments by different names, and take 
care of its production planning and control 
in a different way. 

In planning the departments and the working 
force to handle the flow of work, it is neces¬ 
sary to get more than a general idea of the 
various factors affecting production planning 
and control. They, too, must be refined and 
eventually made to fit into a manufacturing 
program under which production will begin. 

In a highly productive age it is ~not~enough 
to know how to plan or control production. 
The most efficient methods for doing this 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


29 


must be worked out. Ways must be discov¬ 
ered to hold down the costs; to reduce or 
utilize the waste; to keep all the machines 
running the maximum time; to prevent 
breakdowns, and to insure against other in¬ 
terruptions in the flow of work. 



Fig. 5.—In the larger plant organization the line of production progression 
generally follows much the same lines as indicated in the above chart. 
Here we find that the works manager, whose duties correspond to those 
of the superintendent in the small organizations, delegates portions of his 
responsibilities to two assistants, the planning superintendent and the 
manufacturing superintendent. 


Job Analysis a Big Factor in Making Refinements 

Job analysis, the underlying principles of 
which were explained in the fifth manual, is 










































30 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


a great source of valuable information in 
refining the factors of production planning 
and control. In fact, without job analysis it 
would be impossible to outline any definite 
program and still have it produce effectively. 
Routing, scheduling, job classification, time 
and motion studies, safety regulation, and 
all the other by-products of job analysis, must 
be applied in planning the departments and 
in organizing the working force to handle the 
flow of work. 

Other Sources of Information 

Engineers who specialize in working out the 
ways and means of producing or fabricating 
the work according to a given design are 
known as “methods engineers. ,, The foreman 
can be of great assistance to them by giving 
them problems to work out which he sees in 
the rough but does not have time to work out 
himself. 

Other sources of information need to be stud¬ 
ied also. A job analysis of the product itself 
should be made, both in its finished form and 
by component parts: What processes are 
necessary for making each part? What is 
the logical order in which to do the various 
operations? What tools are necessary? And 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


31 


what is the best way to have each operation 
handled in order to have it done in the short¬ 
est time and with the least effort, while still 
maintaining the necessary quality? 

When the study of the product has included 
all these factors, then it becomes necessary to 
coordinate this information and present it in 
such form that it may be permanently re¬ 
corded and readily put into practical use. 
The foreman will recognize the need for four 
distinct classifications of this information. 

First Classification—Parts List 

First, there will be the “parts list”—simply a 
written list of every part that goes into a 
given product. It is easy to make, but care 
should be taken to omit nothing. 

Second, Classification—Routing 

Second, there is the question of what order is 
best in planning the processes. This involves 
the arrangement of the shop, the location of 
machines, and the time order in which vari¬ 
ous parts are needed in their relation to 
each other. This planning of the actual path 
which each part or group of parts will travel 
in going from one machine or operation to 
the next, is called “routing.” Routing is 




32 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


really a detailed continuation of process map¬ 
ping. An example of effective planning and 
routing is given in the experience of the con¬ 
cern manufacturing sewing machines, which 
is related earlier in this manual. 

Routing is an important step, because in the 
detailed routing of a factory’s product from 
one process to another, just as in process 
mapping, there are usually dozens of places 
where inefficiencies that seem very small in 
themselves, amount up to big figures in both 
time and money when repeated on hundreds 
or thousands of pieces each day. Carefully 
planned routing means, too, that the flow of 
work will be steady and uninterrupted. 
Where the routing has been carefully worked 
out for each part in writing, the result is the 
routing instruction for that part. 

Routing of Individual Parts .—The routing 
of an individual piece or component is not 
usually so easily presented in graphic form 
as is the case with general process mapping. 
Where we have the same process applying to 
practically all products, as in machine forg¬ 
ing for example, we can indicate the path of 
travel of a forging from machine to machine 
quite clearly; but where we have a great 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


33 


variety of metal parts undergoing varying 
operations, the parts and operations changing 
not only from day to day but frequently from 
hour to hour, we can only represent the rout¬ 
ing of the individual piece by means of a 
written route sheet or route card. 

Sometimes the routing is indicated on the 
detail blue print. Usually there is not room 
enough on a blue print to go into details 
further than to indicate the different depart¬ 
ments which must work on the piece. The 
finer breakdown is usually taken care of on 
what is designated as an “instruction card” 
or “plan of work.” The recording of the 
routing of each piece or component is of 
necessity a record which must be established 
before we can begin anything precise in the 
way of scheduling or time studies or piece 
rates. 

The Time Element in Route Charts .—It is 
not enough to know, in the detailed plan of 
work, merely the route that a piece of mate¬ 
rial must travel from process to process. It 
is also highly important to know how much 
time each process will require. 

For if a piece of material must go thru six 
processes before it becomes the finished pro- 



34 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


duction on a certain date, then you will want 
to know how long beforehand you must start 
your first process in order to get the work 
thru in time. 

Figure 6 is a route chart used in connection 
with a gun forging. Notice the vertical line 
labeled “assembly” on the right side of the 
diagram. This represents the date when this 
gun forging must be ready for the assembly 
department. Each vertical row of squares in 
the figure represents one day, so that thirty- 
two days are represented in the figure. No¬ 
tice that six processes are necessary in order 
to get this gun forging ready for assembling, 
and that some of these processes take three 
days each, some take four days, and one takes 
five days. A day or two is allowed between 
the processes in each case, so that the prod¬ 
uct will have time to get from one depart¬ 
ment to another and so as to allow for pos¬ 
sible delays. 

Third Classification—Tool List 

In order to have no interruption in the flow 
of work, there must always be the necessary 
tools on hand, each in good condition, so that 
no delay will occur when they are actually 
needed. To make this possible a tool list is 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


35 


prepared, showing what tools are to be used 
on each operation of each process. Such a 
tool list helps in making out an instruction 
card. 


Fourth Classification—Instruction Cards 

Skilled workmen used to take the job a fore¬ 
man gave them and, with a few suggestions 
from him, do the job as their own knowledge 



Day. 5 10 15 20 25 30 


Fig. 6.—The time element in route charts is an important factor, as you 
will see from this graphic presentation of six different steps which a piece 
of gun forging must go thru before it is ready to be assembled. Charting 
each step in this manner aids materially in keeping control of the work 

in process. 


and skill dictated. With most jobs there are 
several possible ways of accomplishing the 
final result, and even the same workman at 
different times would do the same job in dif¬ 
ferent ways. For nearly every job there is 
one method which is best for obtaining a cer¬ 
tain result; requiring either a shorter time, 
less fatigue to the workman, or less waste of 
material; or, it may be, a combination of 
these. From the information gained from 
job analysis, time study, and other sources, 
the planning department of many modern 













































36 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


factories works out the best method of doing 
each individual job, and the result is the in¬ 
struction card for each part, which is sent 
with that part to the operator who is to work 
on it. The foreman must know that the 
instruction card really indicates the best way 
of performing a particular operation. It is 
his job to help and instruct the workman in 
that method. 

With the general plan of work refined so that 
it will meet the special needs of the factory 
and the product, and with the departments 
and working force necessary to handle the 
work well fixed in your mind, the next step 
is to decide on a detailed manufacturing pro¬ 
gram under which production will stand. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


37 


Step Four 

Establishing a Detailed Manufacturing Program 

By the time any manufacturing concern has 
advanced to this point in laying out its main 
factory program, its management has a 
fairly well conceived program in mind. In a 
more or less general way it has already de¬ 
cided on many, if not all, of the various 
phases of this problem. However, before a 
definite manufacturing schedule can be estab¬ 
lished, it will be necessary to work these out 
in detail so that they will dovetail into the 
various factors under each of the important 
steps which are necessary before the main 
program can be decided on. 

The important considerations are how much 
will be manufactured during the year, and 
whether this production will be spread out 
evenly over the entire year or whether there 
will be rush seasons and dull seasons. The 
amount of capital, the market for raw ma¬ 
terials, labor conditions, sales conditions, the 
size of the market for the product, are all 
considerations which affect the manufactur¬ 
ing program. Sales quotas will be set, in 
order to fix the amounts to be manufactured; 
and there will be financial scheduling in order 



38 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


to insure at all times a sufficient supply of 
money from products sold, to pay wages, to 
pay for raw materials purchased, and to meet 
any other current expenses. 

When the details of establishing the manu¬ 
facturing program are completed, work on 
this program is started by scheduling the 
work thru the factory. This brings us to 
Step Five. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


39 


Step Five 

Scheduling the Work 

Scheduling the work is the act of indicating, 
among other things, exactly when work on a 
certain job starts, where it starts, thru what 
processes it passes, how much time it should 
take in each process, and when it ought to be 
finished. 

Scheduling affects the foreman directly, be¬ 
cause once he is prepared with floor space, 
machines, men, and tools, it is the first step 
where he is given the job of actually produc¬ 
ing something. The whole aim of the factory 
is to produce goods which may be sold at a 
profit, and the foreman’s responsibility is to 
see that his department furnishes its share 
of the total productive work at a sufficiently 
economical cost so that finally a profit may be 
made. Scheduling plans the work of the fac¬ 
tory, particularly with the time element in 
mind, in order to produce goods at the least 
expense and at a time when they will be most 
quickly sold. 

Scheduling During Dull Periods 

Many manufacturers, during the business de¬ 
pression which followed the War, discovered 



40 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


that they had large inventories of goods 
which it was impossible to sell profitably at 
the constantly falling prices. 

The experience of a shoe factory in the East 
during this depression illustrates the need for 
scheduling goods that can be sold as soon as 
possible. 

This factory’s manager foresaw the approach¬ 
ing fall in prices months before it actually 
came. He immediately stopped manufacturing 
the shoes he had been making to sell at a high 
price; and by the time the drop actually came, 
these shoes had practically all been sold. In¬ 
stead of sending thru the more expensive 
shoes, he had his scheduling department imme¬ 
diately start a flow of work on cheaper grades 
of shoes, plans for which he always kept on 
hand for such a time as this. By the time the 
fall in prices and wages actually came, he had 
a large quantity of these low-priced shoes 
ready to sell. At the same time, other shoe 
manufacturers were still maintaining a flow of 
work thru their factories, of expensive goods 
which they found it impossible to sell at a 
profit. 

When Immediate Profit Is Not a Consideration 

Of course there are some exceptions to the 
rules that the work should be profitable and 
should yield its profit as soon as possible. 




THE FLOW OF WORK 


41 


For instance, it is often profitable to run off 
in a short time enough small drop forgings 
to last a company a year. It would be poor 
economy to run off only a month’s supply. It 
is preferable to tie up the small amount of 
money required and have the year’s job over, 
rather “-than to get the machine ready every 
month and run it for only half an hour. 

Sometimes it is more expedient to keep the 
men and machines busy than to lay some of 
them off in order to conform to a sales sched¬ 
ule. In such a case it might be wise to mod¬ 
ify the sales schedule rather than to disrupt 
the production organization. The best plan 
of all, however, is that which enables the 
foreman to keep his men and machines busy 
and still follow out the sales schedule. 

How to Make the Most of Dull Periods 

There are plenty of examples to be taken 
from the slack period which followed the 
War, that show how to make the best of dull * 
periods. Often there is machine repair work, 
cleaning and painting, or odd jobs, to keep 
the force busy—or at least the most valuable 
workers on the force and the ones which the 
factory wishes to retain. Some companies 



42 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


could keep only the foremen and the other 
executives. For example, this statement ap¬ 
peared in an industrial publication during 
the dull period referred to: 

“The Edison Lamp Works of the General 
Electric Company is at the present time en¬ 
gaged in extensive machine alterations, much 
of this work being made possible because 
skilled foremen who are on salaries are now 
available for this kind of work.” 

Another program for the same period is the 
one used by a Wisconsin rubber company. 
This company’s concisely stated program for 
capitalizing shorter working periods is an 
excellent example of how to proceed to make 
the best of dull intervals. This company took 
advantage of the lull: 

1. By improving departmental methods. 

2. By clearing and rearranging records 
and files. 

3. By using off hours for plant activities. 

4. By making a more careful study of 
departmental and plant expense. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


43 


5. By making job analysis. 

6. By cultivating acquaintance and con¬ 
tact with the men on the job. 

These examples show that during dull pe¬ 
riods, just as in prosperous ones, correct 
scheduling will result in keeping the factory 
busy all the time at the work most profitable 
at that particular time. 

The First Scheduling Move 

The first move in scheduling is to take the 
general production schedule—for example, 
the program of producing two hundred frac¬ 
tional horsepower motors a month during 
January, February, and March; two hundred 
and fifty a month during April, May, and 
June; one hundred and seventy-five monthly 
during July and August; and two hundred 
and fifty a month for the rest of the year— 
and to translate it into a schedule of the vari¬ 
ous individual parts which it will be neces¬ 
sary to manufacture in order to live up to 
the general schedule. 

With these parts listed, a production order 
must next be made out for each part and then 



44 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


turned over to the scheduler, who will plan 
exactly how the part is to go thru the plant. 


Preliminary Scheduling 

It is usually advantageous to devise some 
kind of approximate schedule, even tho there 
are no precise data as to times or machine 
capacities. 

Let us assume that we have several sets of 
parts which must be gotten together for as¬ 
sembly. We can get the estimates of the 
various departments involved, as to the time 
at which they will begin and complete their 
operations in order to tie up the capacity of 
their equipment. These estimates are then 
filed in a “tickler” memorandum (so called be¬ 
cause it is intended to “tickle” the memory) 
back of dated guide cards a number of days 
ahead of the estimated times of beginning op¬ 
erations. On these dates the departments in¬ 
volved are checked up as to the validity of 
their previous estimates, and any changes 
necessary are made. This, of course, is the 
crudest kind of scheduling, but it is usually 
better than none. In a small shop the check¬ 
ing up is usually done at a conference of the 
various shop heads involved. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


45 


A well-organized planning department, gen¬ 
erally speaking, should get from the general 
management a schedule of requirements for 
not less than three months’ work, at least 
thirty days ahead of each three months’ 
period. A preliminary program of this sort 
is usually made up irrespective of tool and 
machine capacity, and is based merely on a 
general knowledge of past performances and 
on the possible capacity with existing equip¬ 
ment and men. The tentative program is 
now to be broken down into route charts and 
orders for individual components, tools, and 
materials. 


Detailed Scheduling 

Before the exact schedule is decided upon, 
these three considerations must be weighed: 

1. What is the condition of the stores of ma¬ 
terial? How many pieces of each part are 
already finished in the stock room? Of these 
finished parts, how many are already allotted 
to other products and therefore cannot be 
used in the products that we are now figur¬ 
ing on? What raw materials have we on 
hand? What purchase orders are out for 
more raw materials? What other manufac- 



46 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


turing orders (besides those we are now 
working on) are in the plant? And how much 
material will they use up? 

To get all this information on materials, the 
schedule clerk consults the “perpetual stores 
record”—an inventory which the storekeeper 
maintains in order to tell at all times how 
much material is on hand, and which will be 
explained in the ninth manual. When the 
schedule clerk gets these questions answered, 
he knows where the factory stands in regard 
to the material needed to work up the various 
production orders. If there is not enough 
material in sight, the purchasing department 
is informed. 

2. The schedule clerk next asks, “What in 
detail is the capacity of this plant for doing 
each piece of work?” To get the answer to 
this question, he studies the layout of the 
plant, which was obtained by process map¬ 
ping. Thus he gets a clear idea of all the 
shops involved in making each component of 
an order. 

3. The scheduler next inquires, “What classes 
of men, machines, and supplementary tools 
are on hand, and in what numbers? And how 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


47 


many will be needed from month to month in 
order to handle the production orders about 
to be scheduled ?” 

What Men and Tools Are Available? 

It is very important that the planning de¬ 
partment have early information as to what 
is available in men, tools, and material; be¬ 
cause this department must order tools, 
equipment, material, and components, and 
must see to it that the workers are available, 
in order to meet its program. 

With this information at hand the scheduler 
assigns each piece of work specifically to the 
shops and machines that can best handle it. 



48 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Step Six 

Dispatching the Work 

The work has now been brought to the point 
where the foreman is actually in contact with 
it. It is flowing thru his department, or at 
least into it; and he must see that there are 
no delays or interruptions in the way it flows 
thru and on to the next department. 

Dispatching is seeing that the work goes 
thru. You could accomplish perfectly the 
first five moves; yet if you failed to dispatch 
the work, you would get nowhere. 

Work does not put itself thru. It has to be 
put thru by persons of dispatching ability. 
Here the foreman is largely on his own re¬ 
sponsibility and receives little help from out¬ 
side his own department. 

Some of the machinery of dispatching may be 
worked out by the planning department; yet 
the act of dispatching is not a planning act. 
It is a production act. The dispatcher of 
industry is the foreman—and beyond him the 
general foremen, the superintendent, and the 
works managers. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


49 


Between scheduling and dispatching there is 
the same fundamental difference that there is 
between planning a thing and doing it. Both 
are necessary, but they should not be con¬ 
fused with each other. 

Dispatching is the first and foremost job of 
a foreman. He gets the work done. This 
job of getting the work done has become in¬ 
creasingly hard as modern industry has be¬ 
come more complex. Moreover, the foreman 
is the last-man executive, standing next to 
the working force, and on him industry has to 
depend for getting its work done. For this 
job of dispatching the work thru, no one can 
be substituted for the foreman. 

He is the key man in dispatching. For this 
reason modern industry is tending to relieve 
him of other labors that he used to do (such 
as planning), in order that he can better do 
the one great job which he alone can do—see¬ 
ing to it that the work goes thru as planned. 

The eighth manual will deal with a very im¬ 
portant aspect of dispatching. It will have 
to do with those qualities of mind and heart 
which a foreman must have in order to pro¬ 
duce. Therefore this manual will not discuss 



50 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


these points, but rather will deal with some 
of the principles and methods of successful 
dispatching. 

Control Boards As an Aid to Production 

Planning boards, control boards, route boards, 
dispatch boards, assignment boards and the 
like, are designed to present in a convenient 
form readily accessible to the foreman, a pic¬ 
ture of what work is being done at each ma¬ 
chine and what is assigned to be done. These 
devices are appealing because they are con¬ 
crete; but there must be good organization 
and management ability behind them. A 
good many companies think they have in¬ 
stalled scheduling or dispatching when they 
have set up some of these boards with pock¬ 
ets to hold work tickets. 

Essentials of Schedule Control 

Schedule control does not exist unless the fol¬ 
lowing seven points are covered: 

1. Is the manufacturing program made out 
in advance, based on an analysis of the 
company’s sales plan. 

2. Has the program been checked against 
warehouse contents? 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


51 


3. Is it known what parts are interchange¬ 
able? 


1 

2 

5 

4 

5 

6 

7 

0 

0 

0 

0 

# 

O 

0 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

15 

14 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

15 

16 

17 

18 

19 

20 

21 

0 


© 

0 

• 

0 

0 

22 

25 

24 

25 

26 

27 

28 

O 

0 

o 

0 

% 

0 

o 

29 

50 

31 

52 

55 

34 

35 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 

o 


Fig. 7.—The above is a reproduction of a control board which one fore¬ 
man devised to cut down the idle time of his men and machines. Instead 
of waiting to report in person to him, his men simply hang a metal check 
on the hook under the number corresponding to their machine an hour 
or so before they are out of work. Other types of control boards will be 
described in detail in Manual 8, “Getting the Work Out.” 

4. What raw materials, finished parts, and 
partially worked materials called for by 
the program, are in stock or in process? 















































52 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


5. What are the economical lots for each com¬ 
ponent part so that the program can be 
met, at the same time avoiding building 
up an unnecessarily large inventory of 
any components? 

6. What are the limiting factors imposed by 
the capacity of the equipment which can¬ 
not be overcome, and to what components 
do these limiting factors particularly ap¬ 
ply? 

7. Are data available as to tool equipment 
for critical components; and have we avail¬ 
able lists of all tool requirements, and tools 
necessary and available to meet the manu¬ 
facturing schedule? 

This tool schedule is always necessary before 
it is possible to schedule the product. This 
schedule is also necessary for gathering data 
as to the life of the tools. 

Importance of Having All Material and Work Orders 
Written in Advance 

In a well-organized planning department in 
which routing and standard times are on file, 
the plan of work and individual work tickets 
will be written out in advance of the issuance 
of the order. There will be a separate work 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


53 


ticket covering the work of each separate 
machine on any lot of parts, so that each lot 
will have as many work tickets as there are 
different machines used. 


WORK ASSIGNED TO MACHINE No. 

Work Assigned to 
Be Added 

Balance 
Work 
Ahead 
in Hours 

Work Completed 
to Be Deducted 

Order 

No. 

Piece 

Symbol 

Time 

Allowed 

Order 

No. 

Piece 

Symbol 

Time 

Taken 

- 








Fig. 8.—Not only must each job or part of a job have a separate job 
ticket for each machine, but a record of the balance of work ahead for 
each machine must also be maintained. The above figure is a reproduc¬ 
tion of such a record as used in one plant. Perhaps you can use it as it 
is or suggest several imprqvements. 


Balance of Work Record 

In order that the work represented by these 
tickets may be scheduled, a record of the bal¬ 
ance of work must be maintained at each 
bench or machine. One way of doing this is 
to have a card on which are listed all orders 
to be done at a certain machine, these being 
placed on the left-hand side of the card. On 
the right-hand side will be listed all com¬ 
pleted orders. A balance of work ahead will 





















54 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


be struck each day. Figure 8 is an example 
of this kind of card. 

Now we must combine references to and use 
of these cards of balance of work ahead at 
each machine, with the sales or shipping 
schedule and the manufacturing program, 
which tell us when the respective orders are 
wanted. A knowledge of both the machine 
capacity and the program desired, is neces¬ 
sary in order to assign the work tickets to 
definite dates. 

Ordinarily in scheduling work where no rela¬ 
tive position of various orders is designated, 
the procedure would be to schedule work con¬ 
secutively as received from the planning de¬ 
partment. There is always likely to be more 
or less work which can be deferred or in¬ 
serted at convenient places subsequent to or 
between orders which must be put thru on 
specific dates. 

Usually the foreman is directly concerned 
with scheduling, tho he does not always do 
the actual work himself. The factory may 
have a centralized scheduling department; 
tho even if it does, it is likely to have a pro¬ 
duction clerk or schedule clerk in each de- 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


55 


partment, if the factory and its departments 
are large. Where the scheduling is not cen¬ 
trally controlled, the foreman usually has a 
production clerk, who acts both as schedule 
clerk and dispatch clerk. 

In order to dispatch each day’s quota of jobs 
to specific men and machines, the foreman 
should prepare on Friday or Saturday of each 
week a list of the number of men on each kind 
of equipment and on each class of labor, who 
are expected to work the next week. A sheet 
ruled off with columns for each day of that 
week is then prepared for each machine or 
bench worker. As work tickets are assigned 
to certain dates, they are entered in the col¬ 
umns, a line being drawn down to cover as 
many hours on that day as the work will take. 
The space between the horizontal line may be 
used to represent one hour, or if fairly large 
sheets are used, four spaces to the hour can 
be used. Some foremen prefer to assign only 
about 80 per cent of the average time in order 
to make up for absences and breakdowns and 
to allow for the insertion of emergency work. 
This method will show at a glance how far 
ahead we have work scheduled for each ma¬ 
chine and each class of labor. 



» > > 



56 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Step Seven 

Preparing for Interruptions 

Having disposed of the scheduling and dis¬ 
patching of work thru the factory, it might 
appear that all the work of planning the main 
factory program had been completed; such, 
however, is not the case. No allowances have 
been made for unusual conditions; for break¬ 
downs ; for illness or quitting of employes; or, 
what is most important of all, for inspection. 

In planning the drive thru the Argonne, the 
commanding general of the First American 
Army assigned certain objectives to be gained 
by the end of each day by the several divisions 
—that is, he scheduled their work. It was the 
task of the commanding general of each divi¬ 
sion, with the help of his staff, officers, and 
men, to attain those objectives. He was the 
man who had to dispatch the work scheduled 
by the commander of the army. 

When one of the divisions failed to reach its 
objective at the appointed hour, the divisions 
at each side suffered greatly from the flank 
fire and the unusual harrassing of the enemy. 
New plans had to be made immediately. The 
most advanced divisions fell back temporarily, 
to allow the others to catch up. A new and 
fresh division was substituted for the weak 
one. Emergency plans succeeded, and the ad¬ 
vance was successful, tho at a greater cost and 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


57 


in a longer time than would have been true if 
the original plans had been successful. 

X 

It is just the same in the factory when a ma¬ 
chine breaks down, or when workmen are 
sick. The well-planned schedule is inter¬ 
rupted because the work planned for that 
machine or that man is not done; and either 
serious delays result, or emergency plans are 
worked out and put in operation. 

The Exception Principle 

Emergencies of one sort or another may arise 
any time. Frederick W. Taylor, who first 
carefully studied and recorded the facts of 
so-called “scientific management,” made use 
of what he designated as the “exception prin¬ 
ciple” in management methods, to take care 
of emergencies. In this principle he set up 
the rule that emergencies and unusual mat¬ 
ters must not pass along with the regular 
routine, leaving it to major executives to 
scrutinize a mass of routine in order to dig 
out the emergencies,—but that systems and 
methods should be so arranged that any ex¬ 
ception or emergency will stand out in bold 
relief in any records or papers pertaining to 
them, and that the force dealing with routine 
should be so instructed that only the emer- 



58 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 




gency matters come to the attention of these 
executives, whose judgment will then come 
into play in disposing of the emergency in a 
proper manner. The method of handling in¬ 
terferences in schedule, which will now be 
described, exemplifies this principle. 

The Production Chaser or Interference Man 


For the purpose of taking care of snags or 
other interferences, most shops having as 
many as four or five hundred employes dele¬ 
gate one or more persons to the duty of fol¬ 
lowing up interferences. Sometimes this man 
is called a “production chaser,” and he may 
have an assistant who is a material chaser or 
follow-up man. These follow-up men get 
their information from each shop from the 
classification of the order or work tickets 
which has already been referred to, namely, 
from the orders that are filed in a certain 
place as being behind schedule, and from 
those in regard to which interferences exist. 
The interferences will naturally need to be 
classified daily so that they can be disposed 
of by a single daily conference or by tele¬ 
phone conversation with the departments in¬ 
volved. For example, these interferences are 
classified in such a way that all the defective 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


59 


products will be taken up daily with the 
proper department; so that all delayed pur¬ 
chase items will be grouped, with a daily 
follow-up; and so that all delays due to short¬ 
age of tools will be grouped in the same way. 

It is important that the interference men get 
the new data covering the material, tool, or 
whatever it is that may have caused the in¬ 
terference. This is necessary so that the 
rescheduling can be properly done. When 
making out a new schedule, it is of course 
necessary to examine all existing charts and 
indexes. 

In the case of an interference with assembly 
—that is, if the interference causes a change 
in the date of the assembly—the assembly 
order will also have to be rescheduled. It is 
customary for the follow-up man or interfer¬ 
ence man to have some system of periodically 
charging against the department responsible 
for delays, the accountability for these de¬ 
lays. This accountability memorandum may 
be in the form of a daily bulletin; or it may 
be in the form of separate cards covering de¬ 
fects or delays; or both may be used, the 
cards being sent to the departments involved, 
and the general bulletin being sent to such 
persons as are concerned. 



60 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Sometimes interferences use up orders sched¬ 
ules for certain dates. This means that work 
must be assigned to fill the vacancy. No 
matter how well the work is planned, it is 
also sometimes found in starting work that it 
is necessary to change operations or that a 
change must be made on the blue prints. 

How Inspections Are Handled 

While inspection is not an unforeseen nor an 
undesirable interruption in the flow of work, 
it can probably be best considered here. In 
attempting to go fast enough, production may 
fail now and then to do its work well enough; 
therefore inspection is introduced, in order to 
have the output high in quality as well as in 
quantity. 

The quality of the work will, of course, be 
checked up by the inspection department. It 
is customary to have the inspection depart¬ 
ment quite distinct from and independent of 
the foreman. This is as it should be; be¬ 
cause the foreman is primarily a production 
getter and cannot help having a tendency to 
be a little less strict in inspection matters 
than an inspector will be whose one and only 
aim is to observe the strict letter of his in¬ 
spection, first, last, and all the time. 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


61 


The inspection department, which may be 
under either the engineering department or 
the production department—or independent 
of both, depending on conditions—will also be 
in a position to draw conclusions as to the 
best way of doing things, on account of their 
constant contact with the work and with the 
imperfections and rejections that come up 
from day to day. It is the duty of the in¬ 
spection department to maintain control 
over quality in accordance with determined 
standards. These standards should provide 
strength and accuracy at the essential points 
only. Any oversupply of caution, either in 
strength or accuracy, at points or parts 
where it is unnecessary, is useless waste. 

Rejection by the inspection department must 
ordinarily be rigid, depending on the policy 
and the requirements of the product. It does 
not follow, however, that rejected materials or 
parts will not be used. They must be set aside 
for review by the properly authorized person 
or persons who will decide what disposition 
shall be made of them. The inspection sys¬ 
tem must be such that there is no delay, that 
decisions are prompt, and that the depart¬ 
ment is generally looked to as a means of 
expediting and benefiting production. 



62 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


When “100%” Inspection Is Necessary 

There are certain kinds of work and certain 
operations where 100 per cent detail inspec¬ 
tion of each piece is necessary. This type of 
inspection may be again classified as either 
counting, weighing, gauging, or measuring, 
or as simple visual inspection. Where there 
is a constant flow of materials or parts, the 
trucks or conveyors will bring them into 
closed inspection cribs, or cages—material to 
be inspected entering at one end, and ac¬ 
cepted goods passing out at the other end, 
with room for the temporary storage of re¬ 
jections. 

How Selective Inspection Is Applied 

\ 

Where 100 per cent detailed inspection is not 
necessary, we may utilize selective inspection, 
the process inspectors making selections or 
“pick-ups” at critical points. Process inspec¬ 
tion of this sort is usually preferable to a 
system of final inspection, which waits until 
many parts are finished before any inspection 
at all is made. Process inspection prevents 
errors and defects at the start, usually just 
when they are beginning to be made. 

These process inspectors will make their 
selections at what are known as critical 



THE FLOW OF WORK 


63 


points. The inspector at a given point is 
responsible for all operations which have been 
performed since the last previous inspection. 

Applying the Principles to Your Shop or 
Department 

Factories and plants differ as well as do their 
organizations and products. Each plant ol¬ 
factory is different in that the conditions are 
never quite alike and individual adaptations 
should be made from universal principles to 
meet the requirements of your particular 
plant, factory, or department. The universal 
principles of maintaining an even, steady, and 
smooth flow of work as laid down in the seven 
steps outlined in this manual, will give you a 
workable understanding of what is necessary 
to such an accomplishment. With this under¬ 
standing it will no doubt surprise you to find 
how comparatively easy it will be to work out 
worth-while improvements and possibly to 
pattern a method of keeping up the flow of 
work which will be exactly what you want. 

Determining just what system will work out 
best in your factory is a matter which may be 
up to you, your superintendent, or your plan¬ 
ning department. In any event, you will be 
called upon to help. 



64 


MODERN FOREMANSHIP 


Bear in mind that it is not the theory of such 
rules or principles, but the results they bring 
about after they have been applied to meet 
everyday factory or plant conditions, which 
you must be on the lookout for. Many of the 
suggestions in the seven steps outlined in this 
manual may be utilized in your shop or de¬ 
partment immediately with good results. A 
good way to go about it would be first to select 
those which can be most easily applied, and 
try them out. If the first one does not succeed 
in bringing about an improvement, try an¬ 
other, always bearing in mind that no plan or 
suggestion, no matter how T good it may be in 
itself, will work out successfully for you un¬ 
less the details of it have been worked out to 
meet the requirements of your shop or de¬ 
partment. 

Work flows thru a factory or shop which 
workers consider a good place to work, much 
more smoothly than it does thru one which 
they regard as merely a place to work. There 
are a hundred and one reasons why this is so. 
The next manual, “A Good Place to Work,” 
lists them in detail. The chances are that you 
will find many helpful suggestions in it. 






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V 


























